Chocolate-Peanut Butter Ice Cream

My eldest son has a serious sweet tooth. At this stage, I prefer to just try and deal with it by offering him healthy, or at least healthier, alternatives to the commercial junk that is out there.

Home made ice cream or sorbet is one such treat. This is a new one that I whipped up tonight that got rave reviews from the little one. Described as "the yummiest ice cream [he] ever yummed.", I present to you: Chocolate Peanut Butter Ice Cream. No refined sugars, and of course, animal product free.

You don't absolutely need an ice cream maker for this, but stirring it by hand every few minutes does get tedious.

Makes: About 1 quart.

Method:

Blend the following ingredients in a strong blender until smooth. If you don't have a VitaMix or equivalent blender, blend the cashew and water for several minutes until smooth, then add the remaining ingredients one at a time blending between additions to ensure smoothness.

Finally, chill your ice cream mixture in the fridge for several hours to overnight and then freeze as per your ice cream maker's instructions.

Ingredients:

1 cup of raw cashews or cashew pieces1 3/4 cups of water1 cup of pitted dates, covered in water and soaked (include the soaking water in this recipe!)2 tsp of vanilla extract1/4 tsp of almond extract1/2 cup of raw cocoa powder3/4 cups of smooth natural peanut butterStevia to taste (I often use a dropper full of liquid stevia just to round out the sweetness from the dates)